What should'vecould've been
by bhut
Summary: Across the multiverse, Bobbi Morse, a disgraced S.H.I.E.L.D. agent, confronts Grant Ward, a former agent of Hydra... From there on, it's a very strange ride.
1. Chapter 1

**What should've been - 1**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their respective owners._

 _Across the multiverse..._

1.

Bobbi Morse. Grant is so unsure what to make of the latest member of Coulson's little circle (let's call it that, shall we?) At the best of time, when she'd been the Mockingbird of the old S.H.I.E.L.D., (unofficially, but in the old S.H.I.E.L.D. official and unofficial had been relative, let's be honest), she'd been ice - her words had been ice, her gaze had been ice, and she'd been one of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s, or perhaps even Fury's (but frankly the old spy had been a very different person from Coulson, much less interested in PR and appearances than some of his underlings, including Hill and Coulson were), pet performers, PR people, who did their best to present S.H.I.E.L.D. to the world as a people-friendly agency, right there alongside Hawkeye (and what is it with S.H.I.E.L.D. and birds?), also known as agent Barton...

These days are long past, nowadays S.H.I.E.L.D. is a very different entity, as is Ward himself - a revealed Hydra agent (or someone even worse). The same goes for agent Morse herself, (Barbara; agent Morse just isn't 'Bobbi'; no matter how hard she tries to pretend, she isn't one of the guys, and everyone, including Barbara Morse, knows it), and no matter how hard she tries to throw him off balance with that bright, cherry-colored top, (he can almost see her breasts, they are very round and symmetrical), he isn't fooled. He can see it, and he can see that she can see it.

"Agent Morse," he says with a grin: what does she want here? "What do you want here?"

"...It wasn't supposed to be this way," the blonde Amazon replies in a surprisingly thin and miserable tone of voice. "Me rescuing Jemma, agent Simmons? It was supposed to be enough."

"A-ah," Grant nods understandably. "Coulson - director Coulson and the others are giving you a hard time with their righteousness? Been there, felt that."

"But it's different - for you. You have supposed to deserve it - you do deserve it!" Bobbi snaps as she gets onto her feet, then sits back down, then gets back up and begins to walk around the armchair she'd been sitting it. "You should've-" she falls silent.

"Should've what?" Grant presses on, when it becomes clear that Bobbi Morse isn't pressing her point home. "Come on, let's have it, but I must warn you - Coulson, and May, and Skye - they already told me all of this, and more coherently than you are doing right now. Maybe you should re-work it all over again? The threads of your act are showing, and this isn't pretty."

"Answer me this," Morse meets his gaze directly, and there's steel in her voice now. "Where do you see yourself, Grant Douglas Ward? Are you S.H.I.E.L.D. or Hydra? For if you're S.H.I.E.L.D., then you have been making unforgivable mistakes for a long time now, and if you are not, then WTF are you doing here, anyways? This is a secret agency, not a stupid agency; you cannot play them for too long and you're at the end of your line. What do you want? S.H.I.E.L.D. and director Coulson are ready to cooperate and to offer you redemption-"

And that hits the nail on the head; Grant shifts, looks Morse further in the eye and replies:

2.

"All right."

Bobbi stares in the whiskey- or rum-colored eyes of her interlocutor. Back in the old days, when Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D. stood tall and strong and nothing seemed to be able to hurt it, Grant Ward had been little more than just another face in the crowd, an agent who was an agent because he didn't have anything better in store for him, because S.H.I.E.L.D. found him and gave him a reason to matter, because-

He's Hydra. It is, it would be good to know whether he was a Hydra agent from the start or not, got turned later, but this is academic, irrelevant. He was part of the enemy movement, the one that had reduced everything to a mockery; he himself was the enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D. (the new one) and its values; he was a fraud...

...and then he rescued Kara Palamas, the former agent 33, and restored her - physically, if not mentally, and destroyed the good will that Bobbi had been accumulating for the last few months, if not for most of her S.H.I.E.L.D. career life.

"I don't care," Grant's voice is firm, and Bobbi, for all of her training, just cannot read him - the man's a statue, marble or limestone, without any emotions and those stupid, stupid eyes, whiskey- or rum-colored. Who cares? Not Bobbi, who is already angry at the fact that Grant Ward seems to be channelling director Coulson (at his worst, but still), at her.

"Excuse me?"

"I mean, I do care about redemption, salvation, damnation and that sort of thing - honest," Ward elaborates as he continues to look Bobbi straight in the face, ignoring her other assets (it's annoying. She has specialized in seduction, darn it! He had slept with the Cavalry, who's as womanly as...the director himself, for example, because he was a man). He shouldn't be so in control now, not if he's the sort of man that Kara Palamas had wrapped around her finger in just a few days. "I'm just not sure if S.H.I.E.L.D. is the right way for it, not anymore."

"And what is? Hydra?"

"Absolutely not," the answer is ready and automatic: clearly the man had thought long about it and thought hard. "I don't- I don't know what 'it' is, not anymore. Unlike you - and sometimes I envy, and other times I pity you - I got lines in the metaphorical sand, and ever since the FitzSimmons and the pod that didn't float, I've been sticking to them. You - you don't have any lines, do you? You just go with the flow - and Coulson had figured it out."

Bobbi takes a deep breath and replies:

3.

"Fuck you."

Grant doesn't back down. "No, thank you. This is more of Lance Hunter's thing than mine; pass."

Bobbi exhales. "You don't get to be judgemental; you're not Coulson; you're not better-"

"Agreed," Grant nods. "I'm not better than you are, but neither am I worse. We're just - different." A pause. "And you don't like this, do you? You were pro-Academy; you were from the Academy, where everything and everyone were the same, just from different pieces of plastic-"

"If you feel so strongly about S.H.I.E.L.D., then why are you here? Why bring Kara here? And don't drag the director into this - back then you could've told him to go away and he would've done that; there would've been Hell to pay if he won, but if he didn't-"

"This isn't about winning, or playing, or anything," Grant shakes his head. "I did awful things - but I've always done awful things - for S.H.I.E.L.D., Hydra, Garrett. There's blood on my hands - and there always will be. Coulson likes to believe that he's running Avengers - the more mundane edition - he is wrong, it will end badly, but at least he believes. You don't do that, not even what Coulson and the others have. You just go with the flow-"

"I believe in S.H.I.E.L.D.-"

"So do I," Grant shrugs. "S.H.I.E.L.D. doesn't believe in me, whereas you don't believe in it - not Coulson's version of it, anyhow. Coulson is different from Fury, and I'm not just talking about the obvious, eyepatch and all. We're all different. We're all humans. This is what Hydra tries to destroy, especially when Whitehall was in charge of it. This is what you allowed Kara to experience. This is your sin. You don't believe in the S.H.I.E.L.D. - just in some sort of an abstract."

"Perhaps. And you believe in S.H.I.E.L.D., but went against it anyways, all lines in sand regardless. Is it not your sin?"

"It is," Grant nods and walks to the snack table (they currently not in a vault but in a better, more civilized setting, complete with a snack table), where he rolls a pancake - with sugar and citron juice, (because S.H.I.E.L.D. snacks are high-maintenance this way). "Here. You look like you need it."

"Thank you," Bobbi chews on the rolled pancake, feeling oddly uncomfortable. This isn't how she expected her confrontation to go, but, honestly, a lot of her expections are being proven wrong by members of Coulson's S.H.I.E.L.D., even the reject (not that she is going to call Grant this - she isn't looking for a fight with him...and if he doesn't give her one after being called that, it would be worse for her).

It is how Lance and Kara find her - chewing on a rolled-up pancake - and Grant, sitting nearby, lookingly idly through a window.

"I knew that you were going to put something into your mouth, Bob," Lance says with genuine bitterness (he hadn't forgotten her attempts to suborn him from Coulson over to Gonzales). "Interrogating a prisoner? Yeah, right."

"Lance," Kara elbows the Englishman sharply into a side. "Don't start."

Lance gives Kara a glare, but it is half-hearted without any fire or ire behind it. "Fine. Look - Bob, Ward. Skye's old man and lady are starting a fight with S.H.I.E.L.D. after all - do you want to come and help?"

Ward gives the other man a look. "That's a yes," Kara explaines to Hunter. "Let's go."

And this is what they do, all 4 of them - take a break from each other and their messed-up relationships with each other, and go and help S.H.I.E.L.D. deal with the InHuman uprising - but that is another story.

End


	2. Chapter 2

**What Should've/Could've Been - 2**

 _Disclaimer: see previous chapter._

 _Note: this chapter takes a more AU turn than the previous one did._

 _Across the multiverse..._

1.

And so it came to pass that Jiaying's uprising (rebellion? coup? bloodbath?) came to an end when her forces got defeated by S.H.I.E.L.D., despite the heavy casualities, and she herself got killed by her (ex?) husband, Cal Zabo, even as she was trying to kill their daughter, Skye, or Daisy, Johnson - a bloody, ignoble, and undeserving end for such an ancient and powerful InHuman.

Sadly, as the survivors of S.H.I.E.L.D. (and their associates) were celebrating (vaguely) the end of this long, convoluted, and unnecessarily bloody, plot, yet another one of their members, i.e. Jemma Simmons, found herself getting (eaten? kidnapped? consumed?) by an 0-8-4, one that was codenamed simply as 'the Monolith' and vanishing without a trace from the good ship Iliad as well as off the face of planet Earth. Leo Fitz, her partner and significant other, went ballistic, which was how Bobbi Morse and a few others found themselves in the Okawango region of the African continent, seeking out a possible lead - no. They were accompanying Leo Fitz on one of his trips, which involved him checking out various leads in regards to the Monolith, and by extension - Jemma Simmons. (Of course it was the other way around, but still.)

Now, in another life, Bobbi Morse would rather be back in S.H.I.E.L.D., doing some sort of official duty, or perhaps - working down in the labs - she did have a master's degree in biology, among other aspects of her career and character - but sadly, due to the entire disgrace with Kara Palamas, she still wasn't very welcome at S.H.I.E.L.D., not at the moment, nuh-uh.

Of course, helping out on the Iliad may've helped some, but - but Bobbi wasn't deluding herself in optimism: S.H.I.E.L.D. had many qualities, but one of them was carrying a grudge towards other agents, other people, who found themselves going astray, against the party line, executing a less than perfect score in some very important areas - such as trust. Bobbi Morse might've been once the darling (well, _a_ darling) of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s PR department, but then, after the mess with Kara Palamas, she wasn't ranking very high in S.H.I.E.L.D. opinion, not anymore. Maybe working with agent Leo Fitz would change this state of affairs, but Bobbi wasn't counting on it, not in the short run.

And in the long run... Well, to tell the truth, Bobbi did enjoy working in S.H.I.E.L.D.; yes, she could manage to live outside of it, but like so many agents, (especially the high-ranking ones), she had to admit that she didn't really enjoy this idea, whether or not she was unwelcome in S.H.I.E.L.D. anymore. It was not even about S.H.I.E.L.D. being an agency, it was more about-

...It was then that Bobbi run into some local wading birds and they weren't very inviting.

"Careful!"

2.

Grant Ward was...enjoying his life, if such a feeling could be applied to someone like himself: (he wasn't really mentally designed to enjoy himself, or to enjoy anything, period, thanks to his family and Garrett): he was outside, (so he could commune with nature - to be honest, without S.H.I.E.L.D. and others in his life he would be a person who liked animals better than people), he was employed by S.H.I.E.L.D. (sort of), he actually made a friend on his own (by being himself - rather than by being someone that Garrett or Hydra needed him to be) - namely, Kara Palamas, and-

And here Grant couldn't help but feel irritation, at the fly (or perhaps - the horsefly) in the ointment. Kara loved Lance Hunter. Fine. He seemed to reciprocate her feelings. Also fine...only, not so much. Grant didn't know just what did he feel about the agent 33, (especially in relation to Skye), but he knew that he would like to get to know her better, but-

But he was also quite confident that the Latino woman genuinely loved the Englishman. True, she had her personality ripped out by the roots through the Faustus method, but one of the few things she remembered, one of the first things (well, people) that she recognized had been Hunter...and her feelings for him.

...This is when her troubles had began, for Morse proved to be willing to bury her rival on Hydra, metaphorically speaking, but given how the late Dr. Whitehall had felt towards women in general, the metaphor wasn't very funny - no wonder that Coulson, despite his own personality flaws and former appreciation of Bobbi Morse, turned away from her once the truth came out.

...Grant never liked Phil Coulson, even of his own volition, and even if he hadn't been taught and trained by late John Garrett (who had his own axe to grind with the current director of S.H.I.E.L.D.), he still probably wouldn't be friends with the man: he was too fickle, too unpredictable, too fond of improvisations - and sought like-minded agents to work with him. Grant didn't mind this, not so very much - if, in another life, he hadn't been Hydra, or perhaps - just a fraud, then he would've been S.H.I.E.L.D., just...not one of Phil Coulson's personal circle...

Skye...he wouldn't have been able to meet her then, not really, and, or rather but, did he regret it? After Puerto Rico, he didn't know anymore. It wasn't about the fact that she had shot him, it was more about the fact that his feelings for her had vanished - there wasn't even bitterness anymore, nor was there anything, certainly nothing comparing to what Leo Fitz felt for Jemma Simmons, or Kara Palamas - for Lance Hunter. Even now Grant could see the two of them ahead of himself and Bobbi, though behind Leo 'cause the Scottish agent was the leader of this expedition, and-

And then Grant saw Bobbi Morse (she was agent 19, but not primarily an outdoorswoman), run across some wading birds of the Okavango. The birds, who were protecting their chicks, charged at her, with wings outstretched and beaks aimed forwards. Startled, Bobbi stumbled back, lost her footing, and-

And Ward caught her (he wasn't that petty, thank you very much) and for a few moments literally held her in his arms off the ground.

"...Ok," he told Bobbi as he put her back down, some distance away from the angry birds, "let's not repeat this, shall we?"

"Too late," Bobbi sourly pointed at Leo, Kara and Lance, who had seen the entire thing play out in clear detail - and weren't too impressed or happy with the development.

Grant twitched and suppressed the urge to drown, or to bury, Bobbi Morse in this swamp live.

3.

After this embarassing moment in her life (or their lives) things have generally appeared to have stabilized in Bobbi's existence for this day at least. Due to her robust and Amazon stature, Bobbi wasn't used to men (or women, for that manner) carrying her around. True, there had been that incident with Izzy, once, but that'd been Izzy; the two of them used to be friends, (somewhat), and the two of them were used to dragging each other around, especially on missions, so it didn't count - plus Bobbi, her seductions aside, was straight...period. She had, she had tried to be a proper woman to Kara, but it didn't work - oh boy, it didn't work, and now...

Then there was Lance, but Bobbi was so not ready to get involved with that part of her life - a former part of her life now, it seemed. Between what she had done to Kara and how she tried to seduce him away from Coulson and over to Gonzales - Lance was clearly over her now. Score one more for the great Mockingbird, agent 19! She really should be down in the mud...only she wasn't. WTF did Grant Ward think he was? He was a Hydra agent - maybe a former Hydra agent - so why he was acting like a decent human being? He wasn't halfbad at it, though - but Bobbi didn't need to be helped, she was agent 19, she didn't need to be grabbed around the waist and carried around - that was more of a FitzSimmons sort of thing, cough. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were supposed to be self-sufficient, self-reliable, tough; Kara Lynn-

Kara Lynn was currently in front of Bobbi, and off to the side of Lance, speaking softly to him and holding his hand on top of everything. The two of them had been together for how long? Less than 6 months, and already they appeared to be working - as a couple. It took Bobbi several years to reach this far to Lance...and she didn't even want to be holding hands - i.e., when she wasn't seducing someone whose idea of a seductive woman was someone simpering and soft, then she wasn't soft, period. This sort of thing? No, it just wasn't hers...but apparently Kara's...

Bobbi bit her lip and looked down on the ground - well, the soft, black, warm, swampy mud. A couple of African toads or frogs (Bobbi didn't care what they were, not really) were squirming down there, fighting over a giant African earthworm that didn't really want to be eaten by either of them.

"Grant," Kara called out softly, with an accent that hadn't been there before Dr. Whitehall had brainwashed her back in his HQ. "Would you look at that? I think it is similar to what you showed me in the Amazon?"

"Why, so it is," Grant unexpectedly replied from next to Bobbi, (startling her slightly), as he walked over to Lance (who wasn't very happy with this development either), Kara, and Leo (who wasn't really interested in whatever Grant and Kara had seen and promptly told them that):

"I don't really care what the two of you have seen on your off time," he spoke flatly (without any trace of his Scottish accent either). "This is a site of clear alien origin and I intend to see if it can be used to bring Jemma back."

"Um, agent Fitz?" Kara looked like her initial post-Whitehall self - somewhat. "From what I remember, this sort of alien artefact doesn't involve people dissappearing without a trace unlike the Monolith..."

"Oh really?" Leo sceptically said and knocked on the stone carving in question. It shook slightly, and a walking stick landed on top of Leo's head. It was followed by the praying mantis that wanted to eat it. The mantis was followed by the chameleon who wanted to eat it. The chameleon was followed by some sort of a venemous-looking snake that wanted to eat it. Leo Fitz looked at this sequence of small African animals and promptly fainted - he wasn't much for the great outdoors either.

"Leo!" Lance yelled in genuine worry and rushed to help him. It was then that the carvings' eyes flashed white and the world went away.

4.

For a brief moment in his life, Lance Hunter experienced some sort of a vertigo feeling, and then it stopped. Top, bottom, left, right - it was all there, though it was more horizontal and less vertical than he was used to. Sky was on top of him, land - well, river bottom - was beneath him, and water was all around him, and he was swimming it, like some sort of a caiman or a crocodile that he was. He could see - or sense - fish and water plants moving around him in the dark water, he could fee the water's flow on his armored hide, and he was generally enjoying himself like any aspiring dragon wannabe would.

And then something - or someone - else moved through the dark water, effortlessly, with nary a ripple. Another crocodile? No - a water boa, or an anaconda instead.

Lance twisted around in the water, intent on meeting the new threat face first, jaws ready to clamp and body prepared to go into a death roll, but the snake didn't appear to fight him; rather she smiled at him in an almost flirting manner (if snakes could smile, that is), and began to circle around him, prodding him with her head and pushing him subtly towards the shore.

Unexpectedly, a thought flashed through Lance's mind, the snake's neck clamped in his jaws as he crushed the life out of her back in the river, while the water foamed with their struggle... For some reason it half-sickened and half-horrified him, so he followed the other reptile towards the shore, and as the water grew shallower around him, he shifted, his arms and legs grew longer and human, and his body in general too became more human, until he stood on dry land, with his significant other at his side, before a humanoid figure, resembling a more human-like depiction of Tolkien's balrog, complete with hellfire.

With one of his hands the other male held - with an odd and uncharacteristic softness - another female, one that resembled an ancient siren, a bird-woman rather than a fish-woman. "Kara," the hellfire entity rumbled. "I'm glad to see that you've made the right choice. Now we all must wake-up."

And this is what they did.

5.

It was evening in the Okavango. The sun was setting, the sky was already dark, the mosquitoes - and the bats that ate them - were out and about already, as were the bigger animals too, no doubt, the lions and the like.

"So," Lance Hunter spoke slowly, as the four of them (Leo Fitz was still unconscious after his run-in with the possibly venomous snake) sat around a campfire and waited for S.H.I.E.L.D.'s retrieval unit to, well, retrieve them. "What was that?"

"The world is older than you know it," Grant Ward shrugged. "When humans just began to build their first civilisations, the aliens were already here, and they took humans under their wing, metaphorically and otherwise. The Asgardians had the Norse, Kree and Skrulls - the Indian peninsula, and there were these guys, who used this sort of Primal power thing to make people different. I found out this sort of thing in the Amazon - and it gave me power over fire. Later, I made a...not very smart division to take Kara there, to see if her scar can be healed there, and she picked up the power of Iara, the power over water. I...didn't handle this development too well either..."

"So, you had powers - powers similar to Skye's, or Daisy's, when youu came back," Lance thought this over very carefully, "so why did you pretend to be normal?"

"Because this is what we want," Kara drummed her fingers. "We want to be normal - just regular agents, who don't rely on powers to carry the day the way Daisy and her people seem to be going. Look at me, I'm princess Daisy, oh Mario, save me or I will make the earth shake. Quake? What kind of a codename is Quake? This is a codename for someone built like a sumo wrestler - maybe she has a weight gain fetish of some sort?"

"...What Kara means," Grant said simply, "is that we would rather not work with Skye and her people for the obvious reasons. Barbara - agent Morse - you got hit as well as agent Hunter had. Do you - either of you - want to get in with...agent Johnson and her part of S.H.I.E.L.D. agency..."

"No," Bobbi shook her head. "This is...this is...you know, I'd rather stay with you people - not that it makes any difference to begin with: I got on the wrong side of her during the whole Iliad mess too. Might as well stick with you. Lance - I mean, agent Hunter?"

"I see where you're going with this," Lance nodded, not looking at Bobbi. "Those powers, they-"

"They're thrust upon you, they don't define who you are," Grant nodded simply. "You're still you, just as the rest of us are still us. You don't have to work with Skye if you don't want to-"

"I won't," Lance said firmly. "She's a good person, but she hates the rest of you. I don't think it's right - not anymore. Maybe this is some sort of inner S.H.I.E.L.D. faction-ism at work - again, but I don't care. I'm sticking with you," he looked at Kara, who was listening to his every word, and smiled in a reassuring way. Kara smiled back - in a uncertain, shaky, yet relieved way and Lance Hunter knew that he made the right choice.

Several hours later the retrieval team finally arrived - S.H.I.E.L.D. was never well-established in Africa, so the nearest retrieval team had been quite far - but arrive they did and they picked them up.

And then, several days later Leo Fitz did find the right alien artefact, **cough** to find, recover and save Jemma Simmons - but that was another story.

 _End Part 2_


	3. Chapter 25

**Chapter 2.5**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, but belong to their respective owners._

Bobbi Morse was not having a very good Valentine's day; in fact, as far as these holidays went, this one was the pits. Lance and Kara were quite happy together, having exchanged their valentines early in the morning, complete with little turtledoves and 'will you be mine' questions and proclamations. It would be sickening, but somehow between their blushing and shy glances to and fro each other, it worked, it really worked. It was all very Catholic (but then, Kara was Catholic, when it came to matters of religion, to begin with); never mind that Lance wasn't Catholic (but then again, he was never too religious to begin with, **cough** ), it really worked, the whole heart-shaped cards and all, very cute, touching and devout...

Of course, since this was Kara and Lance, take 2.0, it all ended up with the two of them having sex as soon as Mack (who was currently in charge of the part of S.H.I.E.L.D. that contained Lance and Kara, as well as Bobbi and - Grant Ward) gave the team the leave for the day. The _official_ leave - _unofficially_ , of course, all of agents were on standby, in case of an unsanctioned emergency (i.e. - Jemma Simmmons will get eaten by an alien rock once more...though hopefully, rather not), but officially, they did have time off. Pity that Bobbi didn't have anyone to spend it with; maybe Mack? He was kind of lonely lately; he and May were kind of circling around each other, but neither had a good idea of how to make the first move; plus, there was the little fact that May was married to Andrew too... Maybe...

There was a small red plush valentine heart on her bed, a small plush zebra with a card too. Bobbi opened the card, read the words - _No one deserves inattention on Valentine day_ \- and recognized the handwriting (she could, she was that good). She then muttered something unflattering under her breath and stalked off in search of the guy.

/

...Bobbi found Grant even quicker than she expected him to find - he was in his room, watching some movie on his tablet (yes, other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents than Daisy/Skye could have a computer, it's just that most of them couldn't use their computers for agency's use), and who had the gall to look mildly startled when Bobbi burst into his room. "What?" he asked, doing a very good job of being himself, but Bobbi wasn't buying it, or caring enough to buy it.

"What is the meaning of this?" she thrust the zebra towards Grant's face.

"It's a soft toy zebra, it reminded me of you in light of our African adventures," Grant shrugged.

"Why, 'cause I eat like one?" Bobbi glared at him. "Are you calling me fat?"

"No," Grant rolled his eyes, "aside from your cheeks, there's no extra fat on your body - I held you, remember? I was thinking more about your speed, strength, and moral ambiguity instead."

Bobbi exhaled. "Can you let it go already? Kara is the one who got hurt, not you, and she seemed to have gotten over it already." She paused. "Ok, she has done this by largely ignoring me, as does Hunter, but still." She paused again and looked at the zebra. "Um, yeah, well, this isn't much better..." she trailed off.

"I meant no harm," Grant exhaled. "But if you don't like it..." he reached for the zebra.

"That's ok," Bobbi quickly snatched the toy back. "Wait a second," and she rushed off. She was back, though, soon enough with a different toy - a teddy bear, or rather a teddy... panda? "Happy Valentine to you too," she added, weakly.

Grant stared. "Look," Bobbi said weakly, "I admit - I am not very good with original ideas, not as Hunter is, or even you or Kara are. I was trained to follow orders-"

"So was I, and it took me months of being stuck in Vault D, followed by more months and weeks of floundering around like garbade in a river before I began to have the so-called original ideas of my own."

"Yes, I got it - Garrett was a parasite; he probably was; he certainly isn't deserving of a good mention for the rest of our lives; but - but I did this to myself. I became S.H.I.E.L.D.'s showpiece, one of several, by myself. I wanted to become whom I became, and so I did. And so did you, Grant Douglas Ward - that is your sin; one of them."

"And the panda?" Grant's face was emotionless, his eyes - dark and dangerous, in a bad way.

"It's a response for the zebra; plus I did see you watch the movie about the kung-fu pandas a while back," Bobbi looked away. "I'm guessing that you like pandas?"

"I feel sorry for the snow leopard," Grant finally admitted after a pause, "his fate wasn't unlike mine, especially in the flashback part, and I admit that I would've liked to be the titular hero too. Whom do you want to be? What sort of animal?"

"Well," Bobbi said with an odd (for her) shyness, as she sat down next to Grant on his bunk and put the panda between Grant's pillow and the wall. "Would it be too unoriginal to admit that I would rather be the Tigress than the Viper? Kara's got it covered - in a good way," she added hastily.

"Yes, I know," Grant said with an awkward smile - but then again, he never really smiled in a genuine, meaningful way (fake smiles didn't count; Bobbi could whip herself one in moments; genuine smiles and grins were a different matter altogether). "Look, I don't know - I don't know if I can like you or trust you as an agent, but as a human being this is another matter; plus, no one deserves to be alone on such a holiday-"

"Wait," Bobbi said firmly, keeping a firm grip on her temper. "Are you saying that agents - as agents and agents - as humans - are two different people?"

"Two different aspects of the same person, yes," Grant nodded. "This is my point."

"Lance has told me something similar a while ago, before we fell apart... I don't know for what time," Bobbi thought this over and shivered, without really noticing it. "Maybe he was right?"

"Maybe," Grant quietly, and shyly, hugged her. "So, uh, now what?"

The two specialists looked at his bunk bed - it was tight enough even for him; add Bobbi into the mix, and she wasn't exactly delicate either, and the fit would be even tighter. "Let's watch a movie?" Bobbi suggested, "or the, uh, Grammy awards?"

"All right," Grant nodded and the two of them huddled down, watching some latest romantic comedy on Netflix. Happy Valentine's day after all!

End

PS: And in another S.H.I.E.L.D. base altogether Daisy 'Quake' Johnson blinked and paused, before re-starting thinking about Lincoln Campbell once more: something has changed in the world after all.

End II


	4. Chapter 3

**What should've/could've been - 3**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, except for agent Evelyn and her mercenaries._

It had been several weeks since the Valentine's Day incident and things had gone from uncomfortable to awkward; whether the direction was down or up was another story. Kara may've been in love with Lance Hunter and had no problems with Grant moving on, but did it have to be Bobbi? Considering that the relations between the two women themselves were nowhere near a good resolution, this was understandable, but - not very good.

Hunter, for his own part, didn't really like Ward - not really. Director Coulson and his team had nothing but bad things to tell about their former (ok, not so former, not anymore) co-worker, but from what Hunter could see so far the evidence was more to the contrary instead. True, there was the closest thing that Grant ever had to an ex (not counting Kara, who was very firmly on team Hunter - and Hunter enjoyed that a lot) - agent Daisy Johnson, but now Grant seemed to be firmly over her (and vice versa). Normally, Hunter would poke at this thing a bit more - he, too, wasn't sure how he felt about his ex going out (sort of) with another man, but he remembered that there was a time when Diasy (or rather - Skye) seemed to have a crush on him in the past, so he decided not to get her involved, not now.

"At least director Coulson decided to celebrate...well, to mark Jemma Simmons' rescue from the foreign planet with better, newer, muffins and hot chocolate in the kitchen," Grant commented to Hunter (and the others), startling the Englishman out of his thoughts.

"Hey, it's not his fault that Hydra decided to make a comeback in attacking Garner while we were away," Hunter decided to argue, noting that Grant _hadn't_ taken a muffin, not yet, despite any of his comments here. "I mean, yes, Garner is alive and all, but still - this sucks."

Grant looked askance. "Andrew Garner is a civilian - Hydra agents usually have at least some training that allows them to better than civilians - otherwise they aren't agents, but something else. I don't know how Garner has survived, but there is something that is setting my teeth on edge when I look at him, lately."

"I think that it is the whole thingy that we've experienced in Africa," Hunter confessed. "He's been doing this to me too." Ward gave him a look; Hunter took a deeper breath than what he normally took, and continued on. "Same with Kara and...Bobbi, I guess?"

There was the silence. The two women were there as well - free (and tasty) muffins were free (and tasty) muffins, but beyond that neither Kara nor Bobbi wanted to talk - not yet.

"Mm, but that means what? Garner himself is gifted of some sort?" Grant did his best to fill the gap, which wasn't very good, actually. "This isn't a bad thing, you know? Maybe? Can't he, and the Cavalry, and Daisy work something out? Coulson can help too - as the director..."

"I don't know," Hunter gamely picked up the counter-suggestion. "May is the sort of a woman that just has to be on top all the times. Bob - Barbara was someone like that too; this is one of the reasons why we broke up the first time around, before Hydra arose. Daisy, on the other hand, seems to follow the same mold, but if pushed far enough...she's a very different young woman..."

"Yes, I know," Grant said flatly. "I've known - or observed - her longer than you have." He paused, before turning to Kara and Bobbi. "Girls, please, help us out? We're dying out here?"

"Um, you think that the yellow-and-light-violet muffins are safe to eat?" Kara spoke with a pointed politeness to Bobbi. "I don't like the color violet in my food; only in frosting, and only some."

"I have no idea," Bobbi matched Kara tone for tone. "When I was running a mission in Greece, an owner of an ice cream parlor had the idea of making white-and-blue ice cream - something-something related to Greece and to the king of Greece. Only he had nothing in his stock that made blue color, so he asked a friend of his to get him some. His friend got him some almost industrial-strength dye. It stained the lips and tongues of the owner-vendor's wife and children blue, with a violet luster, almost like the wings of some bugs and beetles. Needless to say, the whole white-and-blue ice cream idea died then and there."

"Oh," Kara nodded sagely and the two looked at Grant and Lance who blinked and put down the muffins in question. "See? Is this better?"

Grant and Lance looked down at the muffins. "Probably," Grant confessed. "Lance, you feel the urge to hit the gym or something?"

There was a ding in the S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ - someone has landed in the hangar, done through all the proper channels and all, but yet-

"I didn't know that we were expecting anyone today," Kara said idly to the other three, happy herself to move past the topic of violet muffins. "Want to go and see who it is?"

The others agreed.

/

"...So, what do you think of agent Evelyn?" Bobbi asked Kara some time later, when Mack took his ex - or not so ex - girlfriend into the main mess hall, so that the others could meet her. "I mean, I think I remember seeing her before the uprising, but somehow I remember her differently - none of those soft muted colors, brown and green-"

"I know, for some reason I imagined someone more like you," Kara confessed, "you know, a S.H.I.E.L.D. pseudo-valkyrie? This one isn't; she almost seems to be going for some sort of a native look, or perhaps - like the girl from the Mockingbird movies..." She paused and looked askance at _her_ ex-boyfriend. "Grant, do you know her? You seemed to be hanging in the background as soon as you saw her - a friend of yours, is she?"

"She is the step-sister of my late S.O.," Grant shook his head. "We never dated, no, but we knew of each other, yes."

There was a long, insightful silence as the others mentally picked up the pieces. "She's Hydra?" Bobbi blinked, as she tried to connect the skull-octopus logo (among other things) with the rather charming woman in green and brown who was currently sitting in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s mess hall. "Oh my."

"I have no idea." As far as Grant's reassurances went, this one sucked. "John himself wasn't Hydra; he just went kind of insane after the Balkans and went after S.H.I.E.L.D., tramping everyone underfoot, taking me along with him. Evelyn was never close with him - they were stepsiblings, after all - and when Hydra arose, she was already in Australia. There weren't any Hydra uprisings in Australia, from what I heard."

Surprisingly, both Bobbi and Lance made noises of agreement, though Lance less so. "I don't know, mate," the Englishman confessed. "I think that Morris' cabinet is liable to make their own problems, you know? They may not be Hydra, but still..."

"Who now?" Kara piped up.

"Kim Morris, the prime minister of Australia," Lance elaborated, willingly. "He and his second-in-command, Becker, are up to something themselves. Izzy and Idaho and I were sniffing around, seeing if they might be in a hiring mood, when along came Coulson and co. with a better offer-"

"When you told me few nights ago that you were having doubts about S.H.I.E.L.D. and that you wanted to leave - maybe - were you thinking about them?" Kara asked with surprising (for Grant and Bobbi) sharpness.

"No!" Lance was very firm about it. "I- I don't know how to explain. Yeah, Steward isn't a bad sort, but I actually like it here - for real. Usually I'm 'meh' about my employees; here it's different..." He trailed away and changed the topic abruptly. "Why are we in a Vault?"

"Not just any vault - my vault!" Grant said almost proudly as he walked to one of the walls, knocked on it a few times, and then pulled open a secret door. "John, since his name had come up, has told me quite a bit about S.H.I.E.L.D. and its secrets, even more so than director Coulson has known."

"So, when you stayed here, in this Vault, for six months, it was because-"

"He wanted to," Kara said simply. "S.H.I.E.L.D. was his lifeline, and hopefully - as he thought at this time - his salvation."

"Kara - no," Grant said flatly and firmly. "I'm not talking about salvation, redemption and damnation in public, not now. Nor about potential, either. What you and Hunter talk about in private - its your business, I agree. In public, especially about me and my past-"

"Ward," Kara's gaze was just as firm, "you cannot escape from your past-"

"I'm trying to build a new present for me and I'm not denying who I am-"

"Yes, you sort of do-"

"Well, how is discussing this in public helps?"

"It's a frank and uncensored exchange of opinions, mate," Lance interjected firmly. "Never had one of those, did you?"

"Not while John was alive, no. So how is a public discussion helpful?"

"This is a tricky one, mate, to answer," Lance drummed his fingers, "and we might have to explain to you in private...somehow. Maybe even draw you a few pictures. Now, where are we headed?"

"Outside," Grant replied as he opened the exit door of the secret tunnel that they'd been walking through, revealing to them a proper...mercenary temporary settlement.

/

"So," the woman in charge of the mercenaries spoke to the four new arrivals from S.H.I.E.L.D. "Are you Evelyn's people on the inside? She mentioned one or two, I admit, but not four."

Bobbi thought this over. Most of the mercenaries seemed to be Afro-American, or maybe eve Native African, something that was a relative rarity, especially outside of Africa (or Harlem, for that matter), but a few of them were gifted instead, looking rather brutish by the gifted standards, and some of them looked positively inorganic instead. Overall, not a typical group of mercenaries hired by Hydra these days. Interesting, but still...

"No, we're loyal to S.H.I.E.L.D.," Bobbi said firmly. "Who are you and where do you come from? You're _not_ Hydra, we bet that much though."

"No, we're not," their interlocutrix agreed. "How'd you guess? The obvious?"

"Yes," Grant shrugged. "Hydra was racist, after all. Pierce and Whitehall were smart, cunning and ruthless enough to suppress it when they were alive, but now they're dead, and List, Malick, and the remaining surviving - or new - heads are not. They wouldn't hire you if given another option." He paused. "If Eveyn was Hydra herself, I'm not sure that she would hire you in the first place either. Since she hired you, I guess that she is not?"

"Well true, I didn't hear much of the order-is-strength rhetoric that the octopus crew seem to be so fond of," the mercenaries' leader agreed. "So far it seems to be a fairly straightforward, apolitical job, you know? Go in through here, find a couple of scientists-" she showed to the agents the photos of the FitzSimmons, slightly old, but quite accurate all the same, "-and leave. Through the secret tunnel here. Only it's not so secret, is it?" she looked askance. "There aren't more of you people on the other end, ready with guns a-blazing, are there?"

"How much?" Lance spoke up quietly, but firmly, after exchanging some looks with Grant.

"Excuse me?"

"You're mercenaries, not unlike how I was. I think I ran into your group few times in the past, back when Izzy was alive, for example, and you didn't have gifted people with you," he paused. "I remember you being interested mostly in money and whatever money could buy." Another pause. "We'd rather not fight you unnecessarily, for you aren't Hydra, and you aren't a bad sort, Mitifu - right?"

"Yes, that's my name," the leader of mercenaries spoke, her eyes hard and opaque.

"So can we buy you out?" Lance finished. "How much is Ms. - Evelyn paying you?"

Mitifu told him.

"I think we can top that," Grant said thoughtfully.

"We can?" Bobbi's voice was much more sceptical.

"Yes," Grant replied firmly. "You _did_ work officially for Whitehall, remember? Which means, you got paid by him too, regardless of what your true allegiance was." He paused. "And Whitehall was many things, but miserly he was not - it wasn't his style, period. Between that, and some of my own, um, secret accounts we might just do it."

"Maybe we can swing it," Bobbi grew thoughtful.

"Um, maybe I can pitch-in too," Lance admitted. "Former mercenary here, remember? I do have some money from pre-agency days myself."

"Great, so I'm the only one without any secret nest egg here?" Kara muttered crossly, even as she absent-mindedly rubbed her stomach. "That hurts."

"Maybe we can join financially after this?" Hunter suggested. "Since we seem to be doing so well together..."

"Really?" Kara smiled in a half-shy and half-incredulous way. "Aw, thanks!"

"Great," Mitifu muttered in a particularly crossway, "now you got me and mine feeling like a bunch of heels."

"Sorry," Hunter shrugged somewhat apologetically. "I think this is why Izzy has never been too close with you."

Mitifu gave him a pointed, unamused look. Hunter had the good grace to look sheepish. Kara didn't care. And Grant and Bobbi were busy with their finances - online.

/

 _Several hours later..._

"So, let me get this straight," Coulson looked askance. "While we were here dealing with Evelyn Garrett and the fact that Andrew is actually Lash, you were just outside, suborning Evelyn's hirelings?"

"More like neutralizing them, sir," Hunter found himself being the spokesman this time around, "since they aren't ready to sign onto us - yet."

Coulson gave the younger man a glare; Lance paled but kept firm.

"Um, did you say that Andrew is Lash?" Kara spoke quietly from behind him. "How's May handling this?"

Coulson's grimace was crooked, even as a grimace, let alone a proper smile. "As well as you can imagine her doing so, agent Palamas."

"Ah. Send her some of that hot chocolate that you got when agent Simmons was rescued, alongside some muffins - not the violet ones that're supposed to be yogurt-y, but the proper, chocolate caramel ones - by yourself, or maybe by agent Mackenzie, who knows?"

Coulson gave the Latino woman a thoughtful look. "Interesting idea, this is. So, what now?" he turned to Mitifu and her people. "You just going to dissappear into the woodwork now that you _don't_ work for Evelyn anymore?"

Mitifu exchanged looks with her second-in-command, a gifted of some sort. As tall as Mack and with skin - and flesh - the color and consistency of river clay, the self-proclaimed 'Mudlord' was someone else. After their experience in the Okavango, Lance was suspecting that Grant could beat him, as could Daisy, of course, but otherwise? Not someone he wanted to fight, even after their experience in the Okavango.

"You have any better ideas?" Mitifu and her second reached a conclusion. "'Cause we're listening."

"How about you start telling me how you got involved in Evelyn's mad plan - whatever it is - and then we'll see where it leads us," Coulson 'suggested', **cough**.

"Well, since we were already paid," Mitifu smiled wanly and began her story.

 _TBC_


	5. Chapter 4

**What should've/could've been - 4**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, except for Evelyn, Mitifu, and their cronies._

And so, when Lincoln and Daisy came upon the scene, Lance and the others were already quite busy putting things together...or rather, Lance and Kara did, while Grant and Bobbi had brought them lunch, apparently.

"How the Hell were you able to find a British restaurant in the American southwest?" Kara was begrudgingly asking them even as she and Hunter went at their meal. "It's filling, I give you that - it's like eating Dickens."

"Yeah, well, it gets the job done," Bobbi said simply - apparently, she still wasn't as comfortable with the other woman as Kara was with her. She paused, and looked askance at Grant, who thought this over and turned to...Daisy and Lincoln. "So, what does the self-proclaimed 'Mudlord' say?"

"Let's see," Lincoln spoke before Daisy could - maybe he was trying to intimidate the bigger man, maybe impress him, maybe he was just doing his job. "Mitifu herself had been trying out some sort of genetic enhancements with some of her people - the result wasn't very good; they became stronger, but also zombie-like...in the wrong way, whatever this means..."

"Exactly what it sounds," Grant shrugged. "Parts of their brain got shut down, possibly permanently - especially the part that was responsible for pain. You could slash them to pieces and they wouldn't feel any pain. They would still die, but they would kill you first, most likely."

"And you know this how?"

"From Bakshi," Kara replied instead. "Once the two of us got our hands on him - he talked. Once we passed him onto director Coulson - he talked. Once director Coulson handed him back to general Talbot...well, we actually don't know, but the odds are - he talked." She paused and added: "I don't like it, for the obvious reasons, but S.H.I.E.L.D. has to keep its' end of the deal with the U.S. military, 'cause otherwise you had sold Grant to them back then for nothing."

"Fair enough," Lincoln said firmly before Daisy could. "On the other hand, 'Mudlord' and his followers have claimed to acquire their powers and the new state of being through the magical or mystical mud, whatever it means-"

"When Jiaying's already bastardized terragen crystals got into the ocean, they got absorbed into various sea life," Bobbi said thoughtfully. "Some of them got into sea fish - hence the fish pill crisis; others got into smaller, marine micro-organisms, including the ones that live in the mud that 'Mudlord' and his cronies used for their rituals. The bastardized and degraded terragen got...well, worse, in layman terms, so naturaly that 'Mudlord' and his cronies look very different from... Lincoln or Daisy, for example, but they are still probably more like the two of you than Evelyn, for example."

"You sure?" Daisy frowned, thoughtfully. She was still unhappy how Evelyn, with Andrew's assistance, was able to gain the upper hand long enough to escape with the FitzSimmons alongside Andrew. "Well, it does make sense, at least for now. When she morphed out, she looked like the Wolfman, only it was more of a shark-woman of some sort..."

"I've heard of such people," Grant nodded sagely. "They're the gifted who call themselves the sea-scarred...but I heard of them from Evelyn herself, so I don't know if this true or if she was just making it up."

"Fair enough," Lincoln forestalled any potential argument or biting comment that Daisy might bring out - just for the Hell of it. "Does- Did John Garrett have any more siblings?"

"Stepsiblings, you mean," Grant replied evenly. "There were four of them. John - he is now dead; Evelyn; their brother, Paul, who is a happily engaged man in NYC; and another sister, whose name evades me for the moment. Hunter?"

"What, I never said nothing," the other man replied, "oh, you noticed that I had something?"

"Yes, he's like that," Bobbi said with some of her old-self smugness in her voice. "So, what did you get?"

"Mitifu and her people got paid - regardless of whether or not they were gifted or not - in Australian, rather than American, dollars," Lance drummed his fingers. "The channels through which the money was transfered appear to be legitimate too. People, I'm thinking that Evelyn was legitimately working here for the government of Australia, at least on some level. Sure, it might be Hydra, but one that got integrated into the government, as it has happened in Japan, according to the rumor mill..."

"O-okay," Daisy said firmly. "I think that we need to do - I mean, go and talk to May and Coulson now."

The others just looked at her and Lincoln, who blushed.

/

"Dr. Garner?" Jemma Simmons turned firmly the psychologist turned InHuman. "You've made a mistake. S.H.I.E.L.D. isn't your enemy. I'm sure if you work with us we can fix this-"

"Yes, I agree," Andrew replied, evenly and even aimably. "I just don't really want to. I wasn't a big fan of S.H.I.E.L.D. in best of times, and now these times are long gone."

"So what, you're now working for Hydra?"

"No, he's working with me," Evelyn Garrett, the stepsister of the late John Garrett, spoke up as she got in. "We're not with the octopus, thank you very much - in best of times it was a risky venture, and now even more so."

"So what are you going to do with us?" Leo piped up as he and Jemma became aware that Evelyn had wheeled in a board with some fairly suggestive pictures and sock puppets?!

"Well, from what I understood, Leo, Jemma and you are willing to go to the next step of your relationship - you just aren't sure how, from the mechanical point of view, perhaps?" Andrew replied kindly, as he and Evelyn put the sock puppets onto their hands (and yes, they still had just two hands each, just as ordinary people did). "Well, Evelyn and I are here to explain how it works."

"You don't have to - after all, the two of you barely know each other-" Leo blanched: the sock puppets were very...vividly colored.

"True, but you must understand, Leo, not every couple is like the two of you," Andrew said with genuine sadness in his voice. "Some are like me and Melinda - one day you just wake-up and see that you're married to a stranger that you would've never married, you know? Some things are just not meant to be, either for karmic reasons or for personal ones."

"What are you saying, sir?" Jemma said quietly.

Andrew paused, thinking into nowhere, really. "When Melinda at first came back to me, I was happy, I was honestly happy, I thought that we were going to be a family once more. And then - I realized that Melinda that I was in love with wasn't real, but a fiction that I created in my head, and was wrong. Yes, I can work with the real Melinda, as well as the real S.H.I.E.L.D., but honestly? I realized that this isn't how I want to go, oh no, so here I am. I don't know where am I going, fair enough, but I know where I'm _not_ going to stay, period."

"Ok," the FitzSimmons said quietly. "So, now what?"

"Well, now we're going to show you how life works - with sock puppets," Andrew grinned slightly. "Are you ready?"

The FitzSimmons gulped.

/

"So, this is how it goes?" Coulson muttered to the rest of his team as they had assembled in the debriefing room. "Legitimate, you say?"

Daisy nodded. She was feeling uncomfortable here - because the FitzSimmons were kidnapped; because a legitimate government was behind this kidnapping; because her ex was here and he was her ex for real. Yes, Skye expected to be rid of Grant Ward for good, but somehow she didn't expect things to work out like this.

It would be better if he was just gone (preferably with Kara, but anyone could do in a pinch), but this? This was something else, and she didn't know how to handle it. She had an idea, but a wrong one, and-

"So," Coulson was continuing to speak, meanwhile. "Grant. You've been to Australia once upon a time, correct?"

"Once upon a time is the right turn of phrase, here," Grant nodded. "It was years ago, when I was just a rookie myself. It was because of Evelyn, ironically. She and Tripp had their fight, and Fury had reassigned her to Australia."

"Wait, what? Our Tripp?" Daisy couldn't help herself. "He was in a relationship?"

"Yeah, it worked-out as well as you're thinking," Coulson replied, genuinely thoughtful. "Tripp was in it only for a bet; Evelyn thought that it was for real; when the truth came out, she went after him, and they got into a fight. After they were pulled apart, Fury did reassign Evelyn to Australia and Tripp got to be trained in earnest..." Coulson trailed away, caught in his memories. "So, Grant, back to your mission?"

"It was just to help her and her co-workers settle in," Grant shook his head. "I did what the other cadets had to do back then, nothing else. If John told Evelyn anything Hydra-related that has come into the light now, I wasn't privy to it. And...I don't want to argue, sir, but Hydra would never hire people like Mitifu and her forces - it _is_ racist, even more so, now that the more pragmatic people like Pierce and Whitehall are gone, not if they had any other choice."

"Acknowledged," Coulson nodded politely. "Hunter, you have something report?"

"Yes - I followed the money trails, and they let to a friend of Izzy, and Idaho, and even me - Stu. He used to work for Izzy, but then got a better job - as a bodyguard to Kim Morris, the prime minister of Australia." There was a pause as everyone looked at the photo that Hunter loaded onto a bigger screen - a tall, skinny, brown-haired man with a rather typically British-looking face.

"Morris was something of an oddball," Hunter continued, in a somewhat uncertain voice. "He is very pro-British in his views, and considers his job in Australia as something of an exile. I have heard rumors that he did get the job because he is unpopular with the queen Elizabeth for some reason, but nothing concrete. He is ambitious, though, so this may be the real reason why..."

"Acknowledged," Coulson nodded. "Anything else?"

"Morris' VP is a man called Alan Becker," Hunter continued, showing another photo - of a small, heavyweight man. "So far he is largely a yes-man to Morris, he doesn't seem to have any political opinions of his own. From what I remember, though, Becker and Morris were very close with a scientist named Jasper Finch: Morris had Finch work on some project, and knowing Morris, it's something that would make him famous-"

"Ok," Melinda spoke up (in public) for the first time since the meeting began. "So where did you come in?"

"Oh, that's not quite right," Lance admitted, sheepishly. "Stu was more of a friend with Izzy than me, but then they had a falling out. Izzy always did like Australia - the possums, the wombats, the spiny anteaters, et cetera - and planned to live there on a semi-permanent basis at least. So, after S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, we go there, and Izzy has a talk with Stu - and then we hightail it out of there, and Izzy was angrier than I have ever seen her." He paused and added, looking askance at Bobbi, "she did talk to Gonzales after this, though, so, Bob, maybe _you_ know something?"

"Um," Bobbi looked at the others, and finally at Grant, he just quietly took her hand and whispered something. "Ok," Bobbi noticably steeled herself. "Jasper Finch is a genius - a FitzSimmons level genius, who has dedicated his life to the study of DNA, how and why it works."

"I'm guessing we're talking more than just the obvious here?" Lincoln piped-up.

"You'll have to talk to Simmons about that, " Bobbi shrugged. "I don't know much more about him - I do know that this is what Hartley had told Gonzales, while Coulson assigned me to Whitehall," she paused, thought this over, and made a decision. "Beyond this, I don't know. I do know, however, that just like Wakanda, Israel and Japan, Australia never liked S.H.I.E.L.D. even before Hydra came out of the shadows, and now..."

"Interesting," Coulson drummed "Hunter, Morse, how do you feel about going back to England?"

"Very badly," Hunter twitched. "When we first met, Bobbi was interested in me because I was privy to some of Britain's military secrets, so she seduced me into giving them up - for a while. When it came out...I had to take Izzy's offer not just because she was...special to me..." he looked askance at Kara.

"I know... you loved her," Kara said with a sad smile.

"That's not it," Hunter grimaced. "She, yeah, she treated me more like a son, or perhaps - a younger brother, it was - different from what I had with Bob. Not good, not bad - different. What the two of us are having, Kara, is something else."

"Aw," Kara grinned, before...taking off the mask. "Here. Put it on. While everyone will be distracted with my face, you'll use the mask to sneak in and get whatever the director wants from the British-"

"Kara, I don't know what to say-"

"There's no need for that," Coulson pinched his nose. "This can be purely official-"

"I'll do it," Melinda said simply. "Some travelling out of the country will do me good anyhow. Mack, want to keep me company?"

"Sure," the big agent shrugged. "Hunter, Morse, your country isn't racist, is it?"

"No more so than the rest of Europe - or the rest of the Western World," Hunter replied. "That said, how do you want to go at it - as official S.H.I.E.L.D. business or what? What Coulson wants to find there, anyhow? The FitzSimmons were sent to Australia, remember?"

Coulson told them.

 _TBC_


	6. Chapter 6

**What should/could've been - 6**

 _Disclaimer: none of the characters are mine, except for the Australian crew and co._

 _Note: this chapter is something of a crossover with_ Velvet Templeton _comic series. You should read them. They're great!_

"So, what do you think - about all this?" Mack asked May, as the two of them walked up the stairs into a certain building belonging to the British government.

"About Hunter and Morse's latest revelation? About the FitzSimmons' latest kidnapping? About-"

"Anything," Mack shrugged, "up to and including the fact that London's beastly weather isn't all that beastly right now either?"

"Mack, we're in the Northern Hemisphere, it's early spring, even England cannot be 'beastly' all the time, weather-wise? And 'beastly' Mack, really? Are you the British one now?" Melinda gave the big man a look.

"I don't know," Mack confessed. "I always thought that Bobbi, and Lance, were kind of odd, since neither of them were all that into Britain and, well, the British. I'm no Anglophile, but I did notice that Turbo and Jemma on occassion would indulge in _something_ from their homeland, but Morse and Hunter - no. I always," he looked around and continued, "thought that S.H.I.E.L.D. was, or should be, cosmopolitan, no partisan feelings, but after hearing Lance and Barbara's confession about the two of them and the British military? I'm beginning to suspect that they are wrong, that Gonzales and Weaver and the rest of us old guard were wrong, and you and Coulson were right-"

"Ok, you're stalling," Melinda sounded cross, though not very. "Is making several legitimate inquiries too much for you?"

"I have no idea," Mack confessed. "I think that Hunter is right on the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. had grown too subtle at least lately. Fury's S.H.I.E.L.D. used to be more straightforward, but now, after months of hiding on the Iliad and in our S.H.I.E.L.D., doing - making a straightforward request feels kind of weird."

Melinda looked away, since Mack was correct, at least to a point. So far, Coulson made a very good job with being the new director of S.H.I.E.L.D., but aside from the fact that the job was slowly killing him, (he all but admitted it when the two of them bonded after Andrew's escape), there was some truth in the fact that Phil tended to be a bit too subtle by S.H.I.E.L.D.'s standards, and when he did go for the stick rather than the carrot, the result could be unpredictable - just take Ward for example, him and 33-

"I cannot believe it! Melinda May! Why has the Cavalry ridden into our little corner of the world?" someone exclaimed, startling Melinda...which wasn't very easy - not even Grant tried, though the FitzSimmons, (when they tried to prank Melinda) did, and Melinda let them, 'cause they were the FitzSimmons, after all. Thinking about them allowed Melinda to zero-in on the new speaker...

"Velvet Templeton!" she spoke in the same tone of voice as the newcomer had. "Sorry that I didn't send you a congratulations card when you finally got your directorship here! How have you been since then? You're still keeping the stealth suit, I hear?"

As the two women began to talk animatedly, (in several languages), Mack could only stare in astonishment: did Melinda May have a real friend after all?!

/

Once the now-trio was inside, Mack's surprises kept on coming: whatever bad blood Hunter and Morse had left behind in regards to S.H.I.E.L.D., it clearly didn't spread to Melinda, as various people nodded in greeting towards her, and she nodded back, quite serenely, until-

"Dominic Lake," she glared at a man who was a few years older than Coulson or Fury (or Mack himself, for that matter). "Shouldn't you be in jail?"

"I've been cleared in all the excitement," the man smiled, or at least - showed his teeth. "Shouldn't _you_ be in jail, along with the rest of S.H.I.E.L.D.-Hydra crew?"

"You can handle him?" Melinda shifted her attention back to the other woman. "Because if you can't, S.H.I.E.L.D. has some connections with the U.S. legal system that can put him away once more."

"I can handle him," the other woman gave Damian a look, which he returned with a blankness that any S.H.I.E.L.D. operative would be proud of. "How are things at your end? I've heard that you decided to keep Morse-"

"Velvet, please. Your old protege isn't all bad. Just because Victoria Hand had been able to work with her-"

"Victoria Hand took a bad seed and made it worse. Morse is like a mockingbird, she has no song of her own, but imitates the others' - very convincingly. Victoria, of course, knew of this, but she didn't care - she and Garrett had that weird rivalry going on-"

Melinda twitched. "John Garrett was Hydra-"

"And I'm pretty sure that Hand was also - or she had some sort of her own agenda aside from S.H.I.E.L.D.'s," Velvet shook her head. "So how can we help you today? Sorry about not helping you back in the past, we had our own problems with Simonson to sort out-"

"About that," Mack decided to speak up. "Kim Morris?"

Velvet blinked and looked around. So did Lake, who apparently _didn't_ leave to wherever he'd been going.

"There's a name I hadn't heard for a while," Velvet was genuinely thoughtful. "Last I heard of him was back when Lake _was_ in jail, and I was Manning's secretary. He'd been _suspected_ of being sympathetic with Mr. Stryker's attitude towards the gifted people, the mutants and the like."

"Really? Then he might've changed his attitude, 'cause we had a run-in with some mercenaries hired by his people, and some of them are gifted - probably InHumans of some sort rather than mutants, but still," Mack shook his head. "And according to our sources, he's been working with a man named Jasper Finch, who's been studying DNA, too. What?" he added to Melinda. "I was telling you that maybe we've got to be too subtle and paranoid lately, whether it's Coulson or late Gonzales. Maybe we should try the direct approach, here?"

"I have to admit, this is refreshing, after what Ms. Templeton's failed protege pulled here with her pet idiot," Lake smiled - or at least showed his teeth - once more. "Let's see, what we've got on Morris, so far and lately..." he begins to produce a rather impressive amount of information - but then again, he's good with that; it's like watching Daisy turn nasty (and also an old man, but that's not the point). "Here we go, among other things, he has bought some property-"

"This isn't right," Mack grumbled, as he checked the latest data on Google Maps (yes, if S.H.I.E.L.D. used Google on occassion). "These are coordinates for the Southern ocean. While _buying_ property - i.e. an island - in the Southern ocean between Australia and Antarctica isn't the same as _selling_ swampland to the American alligators, it, this transaction, still got the same feeling."

"I think this is the time when we get Skye - I mean, Daisy - and her hacking skills into the fray," Melinda said thoughtfully, as Templeton got her people to oversee Morris' last purchase, and producing some photos that weren't very encouraging - apparently Morris was also smart enough to create a convincing red herring, just not convincing enough once a proper investigation had begun - as of now.

"Good idea," Mack nodded.

 _TBC_


	7. Chapter 7

**What should've/could've been - 7**

 _Disclaimer: see previous chapters._

...And so it came to pass that Daisy, took her team (well, technically it was more of Hunter's team, since he was in charge of it more than anyone else), alongside Lincoln, and flew off to check out the directions, sent from London by Mack and May, to see if the FitzSimmons were there.

"...The odds of it being a red herring are very good," Coulson had confessed as they were leaving, "but we have to check them out - just in case."

"I know - _we_ know, D.C.," Daisy sighed. "What I was wondering about, however, should we expect an ambush, or will there be just blankity-blank?"

Coulson blinked. " 'Blankity-blank'? Really? Seriously? I think I preferred it when you just questioned the authority-"

"That girl is gone now," Daisy sighed. "I'm Daisy now, for better or worse." She paused, clearing her head. "Anyways, yeah? An ambush or not?"

"It could go either way," Coulson grimaced. "Judging by what we've uncovered with the help of ARC-7? This probably isn't Hydra - this is more of Mr. Morris taking the initiative of his ambitions into his own hands, and since he's the PM of Australia this could get even worse...so I'm hoping of ambush: it will at least give us some sort of a lead - a 'blankity-blank', **cough** , will be just a dead end, something that we don't need, given that we're probably running on limited amount of time-"

"Got it," Daisy nodded. "So, where are we going now?"

"To the Southern ocean."

"Say what now?"

/

"You know, I have been involved in plenty of infiltration missions," Lance Hunter was speaking conversationally to the others in the jet, "quite a few rescue missions too, but this is going to be something new, I can feel it. We're going to the effing Antarctic ocean, the South pole, for Christ's sake! If we find a penguin-ladden island, I, for once, will be _against_ boarding it - not even Leo could hide himself among these birds, and he actually looks a bit like one of them from the back, you know?"

"I always thought more of a monkey, instead? In addition to his adorable little face, he's quite intelligent too," Kara replied, since Bobbi decided to hang around Grant as the latter piloted the jet, and Lincoln was still opting to take his cues from Daisy instead.

"Hey, I thought I was adorable," Lance protested, "not Leo!"

"No, dear, you're just magical. That's different," Kara said with a soft, gentle smile, which shifted slightly into a matching grin, which she aimed at Lincoln and Daisy, half-inviting them to get onto the joke.

Daisy shifted uncomfortable. Was she jealous of Kara and Lance and the others? Well, yes. Somehow, they seemed to have developed the entire 'couples' idea just right - it wasn't just sex with them, it was something else, something different, allowing them to play cards with a certain nonchalance, to exchange witty banter and not get mad at each other. Somehow, after Africa, (after Fitz returned with them, more than just slightly upset, after a false trail that took him nowhere, again), the four of them became closer with each other, they made it work - and Daisy could've used their help and advice, especially since Phil and Mel were largely done with each other, while the FitzSimmons were largely absent - either one at a time or both, and by now it was more annoying than anything else. Did they _have_ to be kidnapped or incapacitated or gone all the time? Probably not, but in the long run they were still more tricky than reliable, here.

"Hey, Daisy, are you ok?" Lance jabbed cautiously the InHuman woman in the side. "You look kind of spaced out, here."

"No; well-" Daisy began but got interrupted by Grant, who spoke via the jet's comm.-link:

"People? We're arriving at our destination, and so far neither Barbara nor I are seeing anything other than the open ocean. That said, we're currently still closer to Australia than Antarctic, so variants are possible, yeah?"

"Excuse me?" Daisy (as well as the others) went into the cockpit, which actually was big enough to accomodate them, more or less. "The coordinates were correct, I hammered out the kinks...hah." In front of them was the open sea, as well as below them, to the sides and behind them - you get the picture. "Any chance that it could be hidden behind a massive veil of some sort?"

"This is more of Mack's thing than mine, but yeah," Bobbi answered instead. "Permission to fire the EMP charge or whatever it is called?"

Daisy looked askance. Lately, especially after the entire bloody mess of the Iliad, Bobbi had been avoiding her, or rather - was quite formal and stiff with her, not very inviting. Daisy would've liked to believe that it was all because of Grant Ward, but after the mess with him and Bobbi and Lance and Kara Palamas? Daisy was quite sure that it was because of Bobbi herself, and her own flaws, and.

"Preparing to fire in three, two, one," Bobbi spoke in a purposefully loud voice startling Daisy from her thoughts...as did the whale-like beast that had burst out of the churning sea - but it was bigger than average whale in the same manner that the Hulk was bigger than the average human. And speaking of the Hulk...

"Hey, that whale-thing - it got _arms_!" Lance exclaimed, just before one of those arms (or rather - claws, to be technical) reached out and grabbed the jet - _hard_.

/

...When Daisy awoke, her entire body hurt - from overexhaustion rather than injuries or wounds, but still. "What'd happened?"

"You used your vibrations to jet us out of the way, and onto dry land, which was hidden behind some sort of veil, indeed!" Lincoln explained brightly. "Thanks for that - I don't really handle water very well, for the obvious reasons... Grant, you ok?"

"Do I look ok?" the bigger man replied, wincing, as Bobbi was helping him to stagger around (and vice versa). "The damn behemoth or whatever you want to call it flicked us away, into the shadows, and we don't see Kara or Lance anywhere. Yes, they're the better swimmers than we are, but still..."

"Wait, you admit that someone is better at something than you are?" Daisy stared at her former friend. "Seriously, who are you and what you've done with Grant Ward?"

"...Holy crap, under stress she becomes even more immature than you, Lance!" Kara exclaimed, as she and Hunter emerged on the shore themselves. "This is really sad, agent Johnson, you know?"

"Zip it," Daisy said wearily. "Do you want to go into the town or what?"

"...What town?" the others, (including Lincoln), said as one.

"The one on the island we ended up at?" Daisy shrugged as she pointed to the place in question, before adding, somewhat more sheepishly, "and yes, I've just noticed it myself."

There was a pause as the agents, all of them, exchanged thoughtful, albeit slightly confused (or not so slightly) looks. "This looks modern," Bobbi finally spoke, "so I don't think that this is a lost civilization of some sort? Maybe it is what Morris and his people had been hiding?"

"There's only one way to find out - go in and hope that this isn't Oz," Lance twitched. "I really hate Frank L. Baum, you know?"

"You savage!" Lincoln shot back - and the small group began their trek down the _not_ yellow brick road.

 _TBC_


	8. Chapter 8

**What should've/could've been – 8**

 _Disclaimer: some of the characters are mine, but most belong to Marvel™._

The FitzSimmons were not having fun. Oh, sure, they weren't tortured, or abused, or humiliated, or anything like that – they were just talked down to, as if they were a couple of ignorant youngsters whose idea of personal life went down to dash A going into slot B, and that was bad. This was, really, S.H.I.E.L.D.-academy-goat-milk-hazing bad, and neither Fitz nor Simmons wanted to ever remember that chapter in their lives – but thanks to Dr. Garner and Evelyn, they had.

…Seriously, it was simply sad – not even super-villains of _some_ sort, (and after their initial kidnapping, it was hard to think of Dr. Garner and Evelyn as good people, it just was), seemed to consider them to be their equals. Well, not that the FitzSimmons wanted any super-villains to consider them to be their equals…but some respect would have been nice. Yes, the older S.H.I.E.L.D. agents seemed to be treating them with more respect these days, but-

"But just what is going on in S.H.I.E.L.D. these days?" Jemma muttered to Leo as the two of them were ushered by some paramilitary-looking people into an office building. "I mean – yes, we're going to get rescued…eventually, but before that-"

"Well, Daisy is with Lincoln, so good luck to them," Leo rubbed his nose. "They probably could use some tips on relationships, so maybe we'll give them…after we're rescued. As for the others…it's anyone's guess how things will work out in the end."

"Well, it seems to have worked out fine for Grant – since when he and Bobbi are an item?" Jemma frowned. "Also, what is wrong with her-"

"She fought with Kara – that's agent 33 – over Hunter, and tried to bury her in Hydra because of that," Leo grimaced, not very happy in remembering this bit of information that surfaced about the same time that they had to rescue the remaining crew of the Iliad from the InHumans and the Monolith ate Jemma. After all the disasters that they went through ever since Hydra had come out of the shadows, the tale of Bobbi's sordid doings had hit too close to home.

"She isn't _that_ bad," Jemma said softly.

"And she isn't," Leo agreed readily, "it's just that we don't have too much in common, so we don't hang around too much together – actually, these days nobody hangs around too much together anymore…unless free muffins or something similar is involved. Then it is everyone coming forth at once, immediately!"

Jemma giggled.

"Excuse me?" another voice interrupted the FitzSimmons' discussion; (to be fair, it was their first real uninterrupted discussion, and so, agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. or not, they got somewhat carried away here and stopped paying attention to their surroundings). "But uh, and um, I'm Jasper Finch, and I'm the reason as to why you two are here – if you two are the right people. You're Dr. Fitz and Dr. Simmons, right?"

The FitzSimmons stared at the new speaker, who, to be frank, did have a rather unfortunate combination of both looking like an anteater and having bright red hair; the result was a more subdued version of general Hux from the SW-verse, but the FitzSimmons didn't realize it – they _didn't_ have relatives in the galaxy far, far away, they really didn't!

"So, you're behind all of this?" Fitz waved around in a general direction, since 'this' was actually a rather impressively-looking – and also organized - settlement rather than a tent, done on a more impressive budget than what S.H.I.E.L.D. (currently) had.

"No, it's more of Morris', and Becker's, and the others', doing," Jasper Finch rubbed his nose. "Well. Ms. Evelyn helped, but she's uneasy here, I can tell you-"

"Right," the FitzSimmons exchanged a look: from what they could remember, neither Evelyn nor Dr. Garner appeared to be too uneasy in coming here, so either Jasper Finch was lying himself, or he was that…out of touch with the rest of humanity, and they couldn't be yet sure which it was. So…

"Well, why would she – and Dr. Garner – be uneasy here?" Simmons decided to play along to see if Jasper Finch would not tell them more. He did.

"Oh, I've uncovered and cracked open the secrets of DNA and we're now thinking of how to apply them – _practically_ , to put Australia on the map and make it great!" the redheaded man said brightly.

…And suddenly he no longer seemed so ridiculous after all.

/ / /

…So far none of their surroundings sprouted any signs of Hydra's telltale octopus, and that was somewhat disturbing.

"Hydra isn't so formidable on its own," Grant was arguing with Hunter precisely that point, but quietly, to not attract the attention of others to them. "It's a parasite, it needs a host to take over to carry out its' agenda, whatever it is – otherwise, it is just a group of people who like to hurt other people while having their own minions. There are always people like that around, so Hydra uses the octopus to make itself stand out – it always does. Since there's no octopus, and no signs of abuse just for the fun of it, this probably _isn't_ Hydra, which is good."

…Daisy bit her lip. Did she want Grant to suffer? No, not anymore, the two of them were done, but…this, this was something else, this was Grant moving forwards and leaving her behind. Daisy hated being left behind, but she didn't want to be petty either, (more precisely – to sound childish and petty), so what to do?

"Excuse me," Lincoln approached one of the settlement's residents. This wasn't a proper settlement, as people there appeared to be mostly military, (and after their initial run-in with Talbot and his forces in Canada, Daisy wasn't a big fan of the armed forces either, but she kept mum), but so far none of them had caught onto the agents' ruse slash disguises, so…

"We're looking for Drs. Fitz and Simmons?" Lincoln continued in his usual manner. "Do you know where they are?"

"Yes, but do you have clearance to see them?" Lincoln's interlocutor countered his questions with one of his own.

"No," Daisy replied flatly before Lincoln could. "We're from S.H.I.E.L.D. So are the doctors in question, incidentally."

"Oh dear," Lincoln's interlocutor wasn't particularly happy, but neither was he truly hostile, so this was good, right? "I think that we need to talk to Stu and the rest of the high muckamucks…"

Quietly, under his breath, so not to give anything away, Lance Hunter swore.

 _TBC…_


End file.
